Category Archives: Reading

Some readers of the Gunslinger have complained that the book is dark, gloomy, and a bit of a slow read. While I do believe that book is a bit dark, and a bit gloomy, and the first chapter is a bit of a slow read, the rest of the book is quite the opposite. Many have also said that The Drawing of the Three is actually the starting point and that the Gunslinger is more or less backstory, and that readers could start with The Drawing of the Three and read the Gunslinger later. I suppose they could, but you miss out on so much of the story if you do that.

In the Gunslinger, we learn that Roland has left behind all of those who started the quest with him, who joined him along the way, or who helped him. Most of them are dead. We learn and sense that Roland is, in fact, more than capable of leaving those he cares about, even killing those he cares about, or leaving them to die. Roland is also more than capable of completing his quest alone, and in some ways seems to prefer it, even seems to reject companionship. But in the Drawing of the Three, Roland is forced to find the “Three.” The book runs parallel with Walter’s Tarot Reading. King even names a major section “Shuffle.”

The Drawing of the Three takes place primarily on the Western Sea or in New York… Jake’s “There are other worlds than these.” Eddie’s New York is set in the 80’s. Before we get to the Prisoner’s Door and Eddie Dean, we find ourselves cringing when Roland is severely injured by the Lobstrosities and loses his gun fingers on his dominate hand (his right one). And worse, his bullets get wet. The Lobstrosities don’t stop with his fingers, they take a chunk out of his calf, he loses a toe and his boot to them. In the Gunslinger we see Roland as more of an Anti-Hero, but at this point in the book things change. Roland, the last gunslinger, has been injured to the point that we’re not sure if he’ll be able to continue as a gunslinger…”What had once been a thing so easy it didn’t even bear thinking about had suddenly become a trick akin to juggling.” Deep down we know that Roland, whose aim is true, will be able to shoot just as well with his left hand, but we know he’s changed and that his injuries have altered the chances of his success in reaching the Dark Tower. I cried in frustration and pain when he was injured. I remember being pissed in a completely different way than when I was pissed that Roland let Jake die.

Yes, Roland’s training helps him keep from losing control, and enables him to function even when others, including some gunslingers, might have been pushed over the edge, but he’s not perfect. He almost lost it after Jake fell to his death. And now, he’s so enraged that he actually takes a rock and smashes the lobstrosity with a rock, and then takes his remaining boot and crushes its head, over and over again. “IT was dead, but he meant to have his way with it all the same; he had never, in all his long strange time, been so fundamentally hurt, and it had all been so unexpected.” Ka? Some kind of weird atonement for letting Jake die?

Roland heads North. The MIB, who tricked Roland into thinking he is dead, watches Roland as he struggles on the beach, then heads in the opposite direction. Roland’s journey towards the Three, his new ka-tet. The first door is the Prisoner, which is Eddie Dean. The “grinning face of a baboon” is upon that door, which implies “a monkey on one’s back.” That monkey is not only heroin, but his brother Henry. The door allows Roland to see through the eyes of the person that he is supposed to draw. Once he crosses the threshold of the door he actually enters that person’s body and mind, leaving his body behind where it lays near the Western Sea.

Roland can assert himself and take control while inhabiting the body of the drawee, as well as communicate with the drawee. Roland soon learns that Eddie isn’t weak, but he does have weaknesses–heroin and Henry. Eddie is in big trouble, and Roland needs Eddie’s help, time is running out for the both of them. Roland convinces Eddie to go into the bathroom and to walk through the “magical” doorway into Roland’s world. They quickly rid Eddie of the drugs that are taped to him, while the plane’s crew are banging on the bathroom door. Roland gets Eddie back through the door mere seconds before they burst through the bathroom door. Eddie thinks quickly. Roland, however, is frustrated with Eddie and his clumsiness.

Between Eddie and Roland, they handle the Customs interrogation. Roland’s strength gives Eddie the courage and strength to withstand the questions and the withdrawal he feels from the drugs. Roland doesn’t trust Eddie. He knows that Eddie has an inner strength, that he’s a survivor, but you can hear the mistrust when Roland tells himself, through Cort’s voice, “You did yourself ill to feel well of those to whom ill must eventually be done.” And Eddie fears and likes Roland, and thinks that in time he might even grow to love Roland like a brother.

Though Roland takes Eddie and Detta/Odetta through the doors without their explicit consent, he tells himself that he’ll release them once he’s reached the Tower, and that they might even be able to go back to their own worlds and times… he’s honest enough with himself to know that that is not likely though. “Neither, however, could the thought of the treachery he contemplated turn him aside from his course,” and we see how Roland’s quest is all Roland can think about, all he allows himself to be concerned with. Ka? We wonder about that, especially after the MIB’s voice creeps in to remind Roland that he’s already sacrificed Jake for the Tower, and now Roland is ready to sacrifice his new ka-tet to a life in an alien world and time, where they might die and never return home…Roland is a prisoner of his quest for the Dark Tower.

Once they finish with Balazar, which was one hell of an action scene, Roland’s life is in Eddie’s hands. Roland fights with his infection and Eddie fights the withdrawal from the drugs. Eddie hates Roland for kidnapping him and leaving him stranded in a world where he has no access to his drugs. Yet Eddie continues to take care of Roland, including killing lobstrosities so they can eat. Eddie even builds what Roland calls a travios and drags Roland north. Eddie’s resourcefulness would have met with Cort’s approval, Roland things, but Roland ridicules it in his mind. Eddie thinks about killing himself, but the fact that Roland needs him keeps him from doing so. Eddie tells Roland of his life, tells him about Henry. Eddie hopes to get a response from Roland, perhaps and agreement about Henry, but Roland says, “What’s past is past, and what’s ahead is ahead. The second is ka, and takes care of itself.” Eddie grows to hate Ka.

The second door is called the Lady of the Shadows. Eddie thinks it’s a way back to his world and a way to get drugs. Roland places his life in Eddie’s hands, even turning over his guns to Eddie. He tells Eddie that his old life is over. After they reach the Tower Roland doesn’t care what Eddie does, but until then that part (meaning the drugs) of your life is over. Roland says, “You could be a gunslinger. I needn’t be the last after all. It’s in you, Eddie. I see it. I feel it.” High praise coming from Roland.

Eddie threatens to kill Roland once he passes through the doorway, especially since Eddie knows he can’t pass through the doorway without Roland, but Eddie can’t kill Roland.

Detta/Odetta is a prisoner within her own body/mind. She lost her legs from the knees down when she was pushed in front of a train. Later in the book we find out that it was in fact Jack Mort who pushed her. We learn of her history through a series of flashbacks. Roland was able to enter Eddie without being noticed, but Detta detects him right away. Roland sense her other personality, “not the way one would look at her reflection in a mirror, but as separate people; the window became a windowpane and for a moment Odetta had seen Detta and Detta had seen Odetta and had been equally horror-struck.”

Roland warns Eddie that she is dangerous, but Eddie is smitten with Odetta. He “hears with his ears, but not with his heart.” Roland hears Eddie’s story about Detta’s and Odetta’s brief awareness of each other and knows that he has to somehow make her two personalities face each other.

Jack Mort. The Death door. Jack Mort is a sociopath, and Roland picks up on this. Mort does not know that Roland is there, he’s too intent on what he’s doing–he’s about to push Jake Chambers in front of a car. Ka? Roland worries that he’ll be forced to watch Jake’s death, and fear that it is punishment for sacrificing Jake beneath the mountains. But Roland pushes forward, distracting Mort long enough that he misses his chance to push Jake, and Jake isn’t crushed beneath the wheels of the Cadillac Sedan. Roland wonders about things… if Jack Mort had been meant to kill Jake then he won’t be able to stop, but he knows he can’t be responsible for Jake’s death a second time, and pushes forward–this is a selfless act, and because of his contact with Eddie it makes him wonder about the implications of his decision. He also doesn’t think about the paradox that he’s created.

Jake entered the Way Station by sort of being reborn into Roland’s world after dying in his when he was killed because Jack Mort pushed him in front of the Cadillac. Saving Jake’s life means that Roland has changed things so that Jake never actually entered Roland’s at the Way Station. Roland contemplates much about what has just happened, but he sees that Detta has Eddie tied up and at the mercy of the lobstrosities. Roland knows it’s a trick to get him to come back. Roland knows that Jack Mort is not meant to be part of his ka-tet. Mort, who caused both of Odetta’s injuries (the one that made her personalities split, and the one that caused her to lose her legs). Mort represents Death. Death for the split personalities of Odetta and Detta.

One of my favorite parts of this book comes now: The gun shop scenes, the pharmacy scene, and the scene with the cop who shoots at Jack Mort but the cigarette lighter saves Morts life and yet helps end his life at the same time. Once Roland projects the message to the Lady of Shadows, calling her by both Odetta and Detta, she turns to look and Roland jumps Mort’s body onto the tracks. The train cuts him in half at the waist, but Roland has crossed back with boxes of bullets and antibiotics. As Mort is cut into two, Odetta and Detta split into two physicalities and struggle with each other as they witness through their own eyes and through Jack Mort’s–Odetta hugs Detta and tells her “I love you” and they become one again. She goes down to the beach with Roland’s guns and saves Eddie from the lobstrosities.

The newly combined personality of Odetta and Detta, takes on her middle name, which is Susannah, and then ends up taking on Eddie’s surname. She’s strong, has heart, but is able distance herself from her emotions. Roland believes that Susannah is the third person he was supposed to draw. But… and here it is y’all… what we’ve all been waiting for…

When Roland killed Jack Mort, he changed Jake’s situation. The real third person to be drawn into Roland’s ka-tet, and back into Mid-World, is Jake.

Though Eddie has tremendous respect for Roland, he knows that Roland would sacrifice all of them for the sake of the Tower. Eddie tells Roland, “if you kill what you love you’re damned.” Roland believes he might already be damned for sacrificing Jake but he sees the possibility of redeeming himself. He promises Eddie that he won’t consider sacrificing them, and wouldn’t have considered sacrificing Jake, but there is more than only one world to win, that his mission is bigger than just the Tower, that it’s to save everything, all worlds.

In the back of my mind, throughout both books, I keep wondering if the Tower is salvation for all worlds but damnation for Roland, or if it’s salvation for Roland but damnation for all worlds, or a bit of both for both…

*Note: much of my information has come from the books, the afterwords, Robin Furth’s Stephen King’s The Dark Tower A Concordance Vols I and II, and Bev Vincent’s The Road to the Dark Tower.

When we left off with Roland and his quest for the Dark Tower, Jake dies because Roland was faced with the “second-most agonizing choice of his life” and chose to sacrifice Jake, his symbolic son. Jake tells Roland, “Go, then. There are other worlds than these.” Roland palavers with Walter. The Man in Black tells Roland about the past, the Universe, and Roland’s future with a deck of Tarot cards. The cards show the Sailor, which is Roland’s card, The Prisoner, The Lady of Shadows, and the Death card… these are the three that Roland will find through the three doors he will find along his quest.

The book ends with Roland watching the sunset on the beach of the Western Sea. The Man in Black is dead. Roland’s future is unclear, and less than 7 hours later we begin The Drawing of the Three on that same beach.

Like the Sailor card from the Tarot deck, Roland wakes to the “grating sound of water with a throat-full of stones.” The “monstrosities (or lobstrosities as they will later be called) and their chant of “Did-a-chik” “Did-a-chum” seem to be symbolic. Roland is crippled by them, hurt in a way that he has never been hurt before, losing the first two fingers on his dominant hand (right). This injury is unexpected, in more than one way (to Roland and to the Constant Reader). Why do you think King choose to do that? How does this change Roland? Do you think that the Prologue was a set up for the tone of the novel? Or do you think it was Ka?

King’s influences for the Dark Tower series are The Lord of the Rings; The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; and Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came. Do you feel like the Gunslinger showed these influences? Do you feel the influences in The Drawing of the Three?

In The Gunslinger, Roland is shown as a broken, damned man. One who possesses enough humanity to understand his actions, yet lacks enough humanity to change the course of his actions (Ka). Do you think that Roland has grown as a result of his actions? Especially his sacrifice of Jake?

What do you think about Eddie Dean, the Prisoner? What do you think about Roland’s thoughts while riding piggy back in Eddie’s mind?

Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three Reading Schedule

Details:

We started September out on a Thursday, this month in October the month starts on a Saturday so I’m going to continue posting the discussion posts on Friday’s, including the last one, which will be on October 28th.

You can do a post and leave your link in the comments, or you can just post your thoughts in the comments of the week’s discussion post.

Reading schedule:I realize that you may be reading from a different edition than me so the page numbers may be off. (Note: My version is from Plume and was published 1989.)

I just finished the Gunslinger. Here are a few of the lines that really stood out from the last few chapters: “he sat stiffly in the darkness, stunned with horror and terrified (for the first time in his existence) of the self-loathing that might come afterward.”

“In a sudden, simple thought (almost a vision) it came to him that all he had to do was give it over, turn around, take the boy with him, and make him the center of the new force. The Tower did not have to be obtained in this humiliating, nose-rubbing way, did it?…He knew with a sudden coldness that turning backward would mean death for both of them–death or worse.”
“Go then. There are other worlds than these.”
What stood out for you? Why?

Instead of having a few questions per chapter I thought I would change things for the later half of the book and talk about overall impressions, favorite lines from the book, how King’s writing feels to the reader, and what you think about Roland, the man in black, Jake, and where the story is headed…

As I read this book again for the first time in over a decade I was, firstly amazed at how it almost felt like reading it for the first time all over again. Secondly, I was amazed that even as I read I kept noticing the subtle and not so subtle changes that King made in this version compared to the first version, which I finally found in a box –I’d hidden it because it was almost damaged beyond repair when where I was living was flooded almost 10 years ago. I know this book seems a little dark, perhaps a bit boring, compared to the other books in the series, and many feel that the reading order should start with The Drawing of the Three, but I disagree. This is, afterall, a story about more than just the Dark Tower, it’s a story about the last Gunslinger’s quest for the Dark Tower. Roland is the last of his kind. Perhaps he succeeds and fails because of his lack of imagination, his intuition, his seemingly ambivalent feelings towards anything or anyone who might stand in his way of the Tower, but Roland’s growth as a character cannot be fully understood unless you read this book along with the others.

Jake: I don’t want to spoil future books but Jake’s last words are extremely important and symbolic. Roland has known deep down that there are other worlds. His glimpse of the universe and other worlds from the Man in Black is almost too much for Roland, as we’ve learned Roland doesn’t have much in the way of imagination. Roland knows in his heart what to do, but his head keeps winning the arguments, thus he loses Jake. His thoughts about taking Jake and finding another way to the Tower make you realize just how much he does love Jake for him to even think that thought, though you know he won’t turn back from his quest for the Tower…it’s a bit of foreshadowing though–you can feel it as you read the words.

SPOILER ALERT: Everything changes for Roland once he draws the three and his Ka-tet is formed. If you don’t read the Gunslinger first then you can’t fully understand just how alone Roland is and has been before he Draws the Three. He’s the last of his kind, one of, if not the only, survivor of his world–imagine how alone he is. He meets Jake and everything changes and yet it doesn’t show immediately. Later on, you’ll see just how much meeting Jake and loving and losing Jake changed him.

Do you blame Roland for the deaths in Tull? Yes and no, Roland knew that if he stayed, even though he had ample opportunity to leave, that it wouldn’t end well, but he stayed to face it head on–that’s his nature at this point in the story. Was there another way or were the events predestined? He could have left. “Why would I feel bad?” he told Brown. Does his lack of compassion over the killing change anything? I don’t think he is void of compassion. I think he feels things he just doesn’t let his feelings stop him from doing what the things is right.

Chapter 2 Questions:

What do you think about the High Speech? What do you think it means to Roland–Past and Present? I think the High Speech connects him with his past, with his father and the face of his father, so to speak–connects him with what he’s about–his quest. High Speech is also a reminder that the world has moved on. “It is not your place to be moral,” his father says. “Morals may always be beyond you.” I disagree with that, but understand why his father said it… he believes that this will make Roland formidable–a force to be reckoned with because when it is required for Roland to put his morals aside to do what must be done he will be able to do so.

What do you think about the flashbacks Roland has of his world before it moved on? It’s important as backstory. It’s also important because it helps keep Roland on task, for good or bad. When Roland first starts his quest as a Guslinger his view is romantic, but as you read further on you realize that now Roland feels that his quest is required… he is the last Gunslinger.

Discuss Roland’s boyhood teacher and mentor Cort–What kind of man was Cort? How does Roland feel about Cort now? Cort is an asshole. One tough son of a bitch. He’s a warrior, tried and true, tough as nails, and lacks compassion. Everything is a lesson to Cort, and he is a hardcore teacher because he has to be. Roland hears Cort in his head, when he needs to less his romantic tendencies I think he thinks of Cort’s teachings when he needs reassurance. I also believe that Cort was such an asshole because he had to be in order to train future gunslingers–tough loe.

Why do you think Roland clings to the traditions from Mid-World, from before the world moved on? Love, honor, duty, loyalty… The world and traditions of Mid-World are similar to King Arthur, his knights, and Camelot. I’d cling to those traditions as well, especially since the new world doesn’t seem to be one where qualities like loyalty, duty, and honor take precedence.

“While you travel with the boy, the man in black travels with your soul?” What do you think about the prophecy? Roland is given this prophecy repeatedly, even though he believe it he brings Jake along. Do you think it’s Roland’s singular vision, or that he believe the prophecy to be predestined made the prophecy come true? Roland has already started caring about “the boy.” He knows as soon as he meets Jake that it’s important, and that it won’t end well, but he keeps Jake with him. I think the Prophecy is one more thing that Roland believes is predestined, but it’s actually Roland’s choice. Just like in Tull. He is the only one who can choose, he can change his fate, destiny…

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” That first line! Who is the man in black? Why is he in the desert? Why is the gunslinger following the man in black? Who is the gunslinger? Talk about a first line that hooks the reader… my favorite first line ever, well, except for maybe these two:

You better not never tell nobody but God.—Alice Walker, The Color Purple

The first line of the Gunslinger grabbed me the first time I read it back in the late 80’s, and then the second time I read it in the early to mid 2000’s, and again now. I want to know what happens next. Who they are. Why they’re in the desert. And why the gunslinger (who we don’t know is Roland until about 100 pages in) is following the man in black.

I love the Gunslinger, on a whole, and the actual character of the gunslinger–Roland of Gilead. In the beginning of the novel Roland is weary, isolated, suspicious, serious, and has a keen eye for detail. Roland is a bit of an anti-hero.

Roland’s quest: Roland is the last gunslinger, like a knight but Roland’s grail is the Dark Tower. In order to save his world, as well other worlds, he believes that he needs to reach the Dark Tower and climb to the very top of it in order to talk to the god or demon that resides there. Mid-World, Roland’s world, is unraveling and the beams are breaking, the fabric of reality is changing because of this, and Roland has to find a way to save all worlds. Roland doesn’t know where the Dark Tower is, he just knows he has to complete his task.

King’s writing style compared to his other works is quite a bit different. The Dark Tower series is more fantasy, western, and a bit of sci-fi, with a little horror. Much of King’s other works are more horror/thriller, though some of his books I find more along the line of thriller. King is a natural storyteller, and that comes out no matter which book of his you’re reading. It’s one of my favorite things about King’s writing–I always get sucked in to the world of the book.

Walter O’Dim. The man in black is the antagonist, the “bad guy.” I won’t say much else at this point because of spoilers… except the black clothes are symbolic of the good versus evil element of the story… is the gunslinger, symbolic of good… protect and serve, and the man in black is bad, wearing all black, we don’t know who he is, or what he really looks like…he’s the man in black, hiding behind his robes.

My favorite part so far are the descriptions, and details like “Hey Jude” playing, and as hard as Roland tried to hide it, to bury it, he’s a romantic at heart. My least favorite part so far is that I am having a hard time not spoiling anything for those of you who haven’t read it.